Midnight
by Rue111
Summary: A modern take on Cinderella set in the modern world of LA, California. When Abigail Collins mother dies she is immediately turned over to her Aunt Wendy and two bratty cousins. After she meets her "prince charming" her life begin to change...
1. Chapter 1

Preface

My name is Abigail Collins

I'm a seventeen year old who is already living a miserable life.

If you're thinking about the ordinary have no friends, parents that hate you, boyfriend trouble, bad, then you are not even close to my wretched life.

My life was great until the day my mom, Julia, died. After that, no one knew what to do with me because a few days after she passed away, the will went missing. I **KNEW** she had one, I saw her write it myself a few years ago, but I don't know where it disappeared. I spent hours looking for it after her funeral with no luck. I didn't have a place to go. I couldn't legally live alone because I wasn't eighteen yet and I couldn't live with my dad because he'd left us five years ago. He hasn't talked to us since then. He probably didn't even know where we were. The rest of my family still lived in France, where I was born. The only option I had was to be turned over to my mom's sister, Wendy Stanford, the only one of my relatives currently living in Los Angeles with us.

All my life Aunt Wendy and her two snobby daughters, Kendall and Arabella, have had something against my mom and I. Although, we have never known what it was, we knew the grudge was there. Arabella and I just happen to have the same birthday, which Wendy of course takes advantage of. Last year my mother and I worked long nights to plan my Sweet-Sixteen birthday party at Willow Creek Country Club, but Arabella threw her party at their mansion of a house, which of course lured the whole grade into HER party instead of mine. She had the whole package, the best DJ in town, 5,000 dollars worth of decorations, and don't get me started on the boys.

Only my two closest friends showed up to my party that night. Ella has been my best friend since I moved to the sunny town of LA. She is a total bookworm, like me, but also very athletic and extremely pretty. Everyone at school comes to see her play soccer, its like watching Mia Hamm on TV. My other friend, Caleb, is the sweet, sensitive kind of guy that everyone wants to be friends with. Ella had introduced us during one of her soccer games. They were already best friends so I just joined the group.

I'm not considered the "popular" girl at our school but I'm also not a "nobody." Yeah, I've been asked to Prom and the occasional school dances, but I've never been the girl everyone wants to be with, and I really don't care. Kendall and Arabella, on the other hand, **ARE** the popular, leaders of the school, type of girls. They always have been and always will be. If either one of them sees someone competing against them, they make sure that the girl doesn't last a year at our school. They go through boys like lip gloss tubes, one tube per week. Of course the guys don't care as long as they get to walk down the halls or get caught at a movie with them. RIDICULOUS.

I had no choice but to move in with The Brats. Ella obviously offered to take me in, but Wendy couldn't stand up the opportunity to torture me for eternity.

I was given forty-eight hours to pack up my things and set them outside the house for the moving truck. After that, everything left in the house would either be thrown away or given to some charity. Ella came over to help pack. The only furniture I was allowed to bring from our house is my bed, the desk that use to occupy the corner of my room, my two bedside tables, and two light pink chairs that came with the house. That's it; all of my mom's things will be sent to France and given to my grandparents. They can decide what to do with it there.

September 8th

_**Dear Diary,**_

My first week living in this _jail cell_ has been torture. I am living my life as a slave to my own aunt and spoiled cousins. I always have to do what they say. And if I don't? I'll never know. I'm not** bold** enough to stand up against their sinful wrath. I've already been told to do everything from cooking, scrubbing down pots and pans, mowing the extremely large lawn, to washing their loads of laundry, which never seemed to stop falling from the laundry shoot.

I HATE this. I'm already so angry and tired of all of this _labor. _I don't know how I am going to survive a year here, let alone another month.

I've never even mowed the lawn before! I would think a rich family like theirs would at least have a landscaping crew! I bet they were saving it just for me. To think, I'm doing the work of a whole crew for NORMAL people makes me sick.

I wish my dad would at least answer my desperate calls and come take me in until I'm eighteen and free. Every time I call, he never answers. . I don't even care if I live with him, he could just turn me over to Ella - that would be perfectly fine with me. If he ever wants to talk to me again, now would be a good time.

"Abigail, remember, you live in my house now, I don't want to hear anything more about your Mommy and Daddy not wanting this for you, alright? Goodnight sweetheart," Wendy always says before locking me in my room for the night. She obviously thinks I'll run away while she is asleep. I probably would.

What else am I supposed to do? LA is a big, fun city with plenty of things for a seventeen-year-old girl to be doing, but Wendy doesn't let me out of the house other than to go to school or run errands for her or The Brats. I'm used to going to movies or out to dinner with my friends every weekend. Ella and I love shopping together or even just going to sit in the bookstore to read. Caleb somehow always finds a way to get out of our little shopping sprees. All of this freedom has been taken away from me now. I barely get to see my friends anymore.

According to Wendy I'm not "trustworthy" or "responsible enough" to be on my own. "She's just trying to protect you," Kendall says as she walks out the door to go see a movie with her latest boyfriend or hang out with all of her friends. Nice family, huh? Why does SHE get to go out on her own to spend time with friends while I, two years older than her, gets locked in my room.

The whole family treats me like a child. I'm seventeen for crying out loud! One more year with them and then I'll be off to college... somewhere other than here.

That's why I bought this journal. So I could get out all my feelings without getting in trouble and assigned even MORE work.


	2. Chapter 2

September 10th

_**Dear Diary,**_

Today has been a CATASTROPHE! I can't seem to do anything right in this house! Of course I washed some of Arabella's Gucci pants which should've gone to the dry cleaners (which i was not informed of by the way), didn't polish Kendall's alligator boots, and washed the windows with the wrong window spray. Who knew it mattered what type of WINDOW spray you used on WINDOWS? Obviously not me. A bunch of Wendy's friends came over tonight for dinner which made the dishes load much larger than it usually is. A five course meal served by the best cooks in California and 12 people makes... 60 plates plus the glasses. The dishes themselves took me 2 hours to wash because they were "imported from Italy" and required hand washing.

Although today was a mess, there were a few new and exciting things that happened...

Kendall's birthday is in two weeks. "The party planning must start now if we want her 14th birthday bash to beat out all of the others!" Wendy orders. Arabella and Kendall are going to spend the whole two weeks shopping for their dresses and various accessories to wear to the party. Kendall is throwing a "Fairytale Wonderland" party, which of course calls for big, long, fru-fru gowns. I'm guessing half of the people invited to the celebration will not even be able to afford one. Wendy has put herself in charge of booking the band and working on the invitations. I, on the other hand, am in charge of cleaning the house (of course) and buying decorations. The best part is I convinced Wendy into letting me decorate the house as well!

I used to decorate my old house all the time for parties and big events. The Stanford's house has a lot of potential from a decorator's point of view. All of the open rooms and high ceilings are great for streamers and banners. The off white colors and modern furniture go great with anything too! I'm planning on wrapping numerous strands of pink lights on the grand staircase, which is the first thing you see when you open the wooden French doors of the mansion. Balloon arches will be everywhere and of various fairytale colors. I'm planning on renting plenty of lights and disco balls which will be hung all around the house to make the colors pop.

I invited Ella to help me with my job so we can spend time together since I barely get to see her outside of school anymore. Since Wendy and the girls will be out shopping most of the day I'm assuming they won't mind if I have a few visitors...


End file.
